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The College That Hates ‘Americans’

By Robby Soave

The administrator who added a confusing, tin-eared Bias-Free Language Guide—a 4,500-word assault on the English language—to the University of New Hampshire’s website as a resource for students and faculty must have been crazy.Wait, did I say “craz...

A University of New Hampshire speech guide explains why just about every adjective—including “American”—is somehow problematic.

Ted Cruz’s Super Stingy Sugar Daddies

By Betsy Woodruff

Ted Cruz’s coterie of supportive super PACs are crawling with cash—but it’s not doing him much good at the moment.The Republican presidential contender, a first-term senator from Texas, has an unusual network of super PACs in place to boost his Wh...

On paper, Cruz 2016 is raking in cash—but the ultra-wealthy donors in charge of spending the cash don’t seem that interested in actually helping their candidate.

The College That Hates ‘Americans’

By Robby Soave

The administrator who added a confusing, tin-eared Bias-Free Language Guide—a 4,500-word assault on the English language—to the University of New Hampshire’s website as a resource for students and faculty must have been crazy.Wait, did I say “craz...

A University of New Hampshire speech guide explains why just about every adjective—including “American”—is somehow problematic.

Walker’s Big Giveaway to a Hillary Donor

By Betsy Woodruff

The Milwaukee Bucks currently play their basketball games in one of the ugliest buildings in America. I haven’t seen it in person, but a quick perusal of Google Images confirms the BMO Harris Bradley Center looks like it was built as an homage to ...

The 2016 hopeful says he’ll sign a bill subsidizing a stadium for a sports team co-owned by one of Clinton’s most prominent backers.

Expand Medicare, You Damn Idiots

By Michael Tomasky

Every so often—okay, not very often actually, but more often than I hunt, or “take” (what a verb!), lions—I feel a little wistful about the Republican Party we all once knew. And that feeling is never stronger than when I reflect on the history of...

The GOP—even Ronald Reagan!—once celebrated Medicare. Now they call for its dismemberment, which is a) dumb and b) will never happen.

Meet the First Porn Star Astronaut

By Aurora Snow

The closest porn has come to space was 20 seconds of zero gravity in the 1999 movie The Uranus Experiment: Part 2. Filmed on an airplane flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet, the momentary weightlessness was created when the plane went into a stee...

Yes, CoCo Brown will be the first porn star to be sent to space, training to travel on a suborbital flight in 2016. She opens up to The Daily Beast’s Aurora Snow about her journey.

10 Great Daily Show Moments

By The Daily Beast Video

10. Rally to Restore SanityThe Daily Show has consistently targeted politicians and journalists who promote polarizing, alarmist viewpoints to further their own agendas and ratings. Stewart’s frustration with the extremes of political debate was t...

As Jon Stewart’s stewardship of ‘The Daily Show’ comes to a close, here are 10 of our favorite moments.

How Fox News Made My Dad Crazy

By Jen Yamato

In a new documentary unveiled this week at Michael Moore’s film festival, one filmmaker takes aim at the “vast right-wing conspiracy” Hillary once put on blast. The Brainwashing Of My Dad also warns of how generations of Americans have been tricke...

A new film produced by Golden Globe-winning actor Matthew Modine fires shots at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the right-wing media machine.

J.Law and Amy Schumer’s Epic Vacation

By Amy Zimmerman

Thursday morning, Amy Schumer took a break from catching the old D to tweet a picture of her and Jennifer Lawrence riding a jet ski. Two beloved female celebrities enjoying an aquatic activity together? Finally, the Internet has realized its poten...

Schumer posted photos online of the two new BFFs jet-skiing and lounging on yachts in some paradise. Behold, the rise of Famous Social Media Friend Groups.

10 Great Daily Show Moments

By The Daily Beast Video

10. Rally to Restore SanityThe Daily Show has consistently targeted politicians and journalists who promote polarizing, alarmist viewpoints to further their own agendas and ratings. Stewart’s frustration with the extremes of political debate was t...

As Jon Stewart’s stewardship of ‘The Daily Show’ comes to a close, here are 10 of our favorite moments.

Behind the Scenes of ‘Homeland’ Season 5

By Marlow Stern

Those of us who braved the death of Damian Lewis’s Sergeant Nicholas Brody and tuned in for Season 4 of Homeland were rewarded with a surprisingly badass return to form.
With the romantic entanglements of Carrie and Brody—as well as one of TV’s m...

Watch a video from the set of the fifth season of ‘Homeland,’ now shooting in Berlin, exclusively at The Daily Beast. The new season will premiere October 4 on Showtime.

We’re ‘Wet Hot’ All Over Again

By Kevin Fallon

Rebooting beloved artifacts of pop culture—the entertainment trend of the moment—has become a fool’s errand. It’s to Netflix’s advantage, then, that Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp just happens to assemble Hollywood’s greatest and most ...

There were no expectations when ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ debuted in 2001. Fourteen years later, the bar is still low for Netflix’s delirious revival. It clears it and then some.

Inside Drake’s Slaying of Meek Mill

By Isabel Schwab, Marlow Stern

Late Thursday, and after a week of utter silence, Meek Mill emerged from the studio with a diss track aimed at his newfound nemesis Drake. Titled “Wanna Know,” the track premiered during DJ Funkmaster Flex’s radio show and included a sampling of a...

Yes, the Toronto emcee and Philly rapper were once tourmates, and Drake even donated $75,000 to Meek’s high school. Here’s how their relationship gradually went south.

Behind the Scenes of ‘Homeland’ Season 5

By Marlow Stern

Those of us who braved the death of Damian Lewis’s Sergeant Nicholas Brody and tuned in for Season 4 of Homeland were rewarded with a surprisingly badass return to form.
With the romantic entanglements of Carrie and Brody—as well as one of TV’s m...

Watch a video from the set of the fifth season of ‘Homeland,’ now shooting in Berlin, exclusively at The Daily Beast. The new season will premiere October 4 on Showtime.

War Is Hell For These Wild Animals

By Margot Kiser

JUBA, South Sudan — A hopeful myth persists in this region that “wildlife refugees”—fauna in flight from war-ravaged habitats—will return one day when the conflict is over. Would that it were so. But in South Sudan, no end of the conflict appears ...

South Sudan’s civil war has been a disaster for humans and animals alike. Soldiers on both sides have turned the slaughter of giraffes and other animals into an industry.

The Iran Nuke Docs Obama Wants Hidden

By Tim Mak

Scattered around the U.S. Capitol complex are a series of Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities, or SCIFs, which are typically used to hold Top Secret information. But today in these deeply secure settings are a series of unclassified...

Seventeen unclassified Iran deal items have been locked in ultra-secure facilities ordinarily used for top secret info. Why is the Obama team trying to bury them?

U.K.: Russia Used Nuke in London

By Nico Hines

LONDON­ — Scotland Yard has formally accused Russia of carrying out a nuclear attack on the streets of London for the first time.Years of painstaking investigation and forensic work have convinced British law enforcement agents and the security se...

The British government traced radioactive poison used to kill an ex-KGB spy from a hotel tea kettle all the way back to Moscow.

U.S.-Backed Rebels Are Cannon Fodder

By Michael Weiss, Nancy A. Youssef

The Pentagon’s plan to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS had already devolved into farce, with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter informing Congress this month that a mere 54 had so far graduated from a program meant to produce 5,000 by t...

Is Washington really trying to train a rebel army in Syria? Or are they just marking fighters for death—and worse?

The Iran Nuke Docs Obama Wants Hidden

By Tim Mak

Scattered around the U.S. Capitol complex are a series of Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities, or SCIFs, which are typically used to hold Top Secret information. But today in these deeply secure settings are a series of unclassified...

Seventeen unclassified Iran deal items have been locked in ultra-secure facilities ordinarily used for top secret info. Why is the Obama team trying to bury them?

Mullah Omar’s Death Is a Win for ISIS

By Thomas Joscelyn

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has confirmed on his official Twitter account that Mullah Omar is dead. And the Taliban’s political office has apparently conceded that the initial reports, first confirmed by the Afghan government, were accura...

The Taliban has confirmed that Mullah Omar is dead. Why this spells big trouble for al Qaeda in its fight against ISIS.

Guide: Ship Yourself a Dead Animal Head

By James Joiner

So you’ve managed to get you and your rifle to South Africa or some other territory known for its plethora of easily baitable big game and bribable officials. And like the mighty hunter you are, you’ve had your guides lure a big fella in, line up ...

A step-by-step guide for shipping yourself a dead, exotic animal head. It’s alarmingly easy. And, last week, one airline just made it even easier.

Cecil’s Death May Kill His Cubs, Too

By Michael Daly

Wounded by the American dentist’s arrow, Cecil the lion eluded the hunters for two days.He was then fatally shot, photographed, beheaded, and skinned.And to most of us, it seemed the deadly dentist and his guides had done their horrific worst.But ...

The horror of the magnificent lion’s slaughter at the hands of an American dentist will only get worse when, as is highly likely, his progeny die as part of the ‘perturbation effect.’

Mullah Omar’s Death Is a Win for ISIS

By Thomas Joscelyn

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has confirmed on his official Twitter account that Mullah Omar is dead. And the Taliban’s political office has apparently conceded that the initial reports, first confirmed by the Afghan government, were accura...

The Taliban has confirmed that Mullah Omar is dead. Why this spells big trouble for al Qaeda in its fight against ISIS.

The Best of Breslin: Marvin the Torch

By Jimmy Breslin

Marvin the Torch never could keep his hands off somebody else’s business, particularly if the business was losing money. Now this is accepted behavior in Marvin’s profession, which is arson. But he has a bad habit of getting into places where he s...

Death of a Diploma Mill

By Samantha Allen

A phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes, but the University of Phoenix is a diploma mill that may soon go down in flames.On Wednesday, University of Phoenix’s parent company Apollo Education Group announced that the business and marketing pr...

The troubled online university might have finally been dealt dual deathblows as they announced an FTC investigation and a 54% drop in enrollment.

Will These 23 Colleges Punish Cosby?

By Asawin Suebsaeng

Serial (alleged) rapist and comedian/father figure Bill Cosby has a huge number of awards and major honors to his name. He can still cling to his Presidential Medal of Freedom, Kennedy Center Honor, Twain Prize, and a Bob Hope Humanitarian Award b...

The alleged rapist holds honorary degrees from 23 colleges and universities—but the schools are waffling on whether to rescind the honor.

The Best of Breslin: Marvin the Torch

By Jimmy Breslin

Marvin the Torch never could keep his hands off somebody else’s business, particularly if the business was losing money. Now this is accepted behavior in Marvin’s profession, which is arson. But he has a bad habit of getting into places where he s...

Sheriff Used Taxpayer $$ for Tai Chi

By Kate Briquelet

Two months ago, Clayton County lawman Victor Hill accidentally shot his friend, real-estate agent Gwenevere McCord, inside a model home. Now a grand jury will decide charges in the case, a local prosecutor announced Thursday.‪Hill, 50, was charged...

A Georgia sheriff, who is already facing charges in an accidental shooting, used taxpayer funds to attend a thousand-dollar tai chi class.

Why You’re a Sucker for ‘Superfoods’

By Johnny Adamic

Since the new millennium, the term “superfood” has erupted across the States, trending at its highest last summer. It’s still holding strong, and has influenced millions of people to take prejudice in their supermarket aisles.Against what?Ordinary...

Hillary’s Planned Parenthood Dodge

By Samantha Allen, Olivia Nuzzi

Over the last three weeks, Planned Parenthood has been the subject of three sting videos that purport to present company officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue.The videos, produced by the anti-abortion nonprofit and self-described “citizen ...

While Republicans are celebrating Planned Parenthood’s PR disaster, Clinton and the other Democratic hopefuls are scrambling to respond.

Black Kids Get Cops, White Kids Get Docs

By Abby Haglage

In the midst of rising racial tension nationwide, new data on school discipline is bolstering the argument that America’s race problem begins in school.The study, published in the Sociology of Education, found underprivileged schools with higher l...

A new study says black students are more likely to get criminalized discipline, while white students receive medical intervention.

How to Hack Your Bad Habits

By Kara Cutruzzula

Finally, an answer to that age-old kindergarten/cocktail question: Which animal most closely resembles you, and why?I am Buridan’s ass. Because I can never make up my damn mind.The answer comes courtesy of Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before: Mast...

Happiness guru Gretchen Rubin is back—and she’s obsessed with your habits. But is endless habit analysis more burden than beneficial?

Hillary’s Planned Parenthood Dodge

By Samantha Allen, Olivia Nuzzi

Over the last three weeks, Planned Parenthood has been the subject of three sting videos that purport to present company officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue.The videos, produced by the anti-abortion nonprofit and self-described “citizen ...

While Republicans are celebrating Planned Parenthood’s PR disaster, Clinton and the other Democratic hopefuls are scrambling to respond.

A 12-Hour Warning Before Sun-Pocalypse

By Nico Hines

LONDON — Last time it happened, in 1859, the world’s telegraph machines sparked into life on their own—setting fires and electrocuting their operators. Next time the results could be truly devastating.The next super solar storm could paralyze the ...

The British government is preparing for the next solar storm, which could drastically disrupt life on Earth. How scared should we be?

Boy Scouts Break Up With Mormon Church

By Samantha Allen

The relationship between the exclusively male leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the predominantly male leadership of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has been one of the America’s longest bromances. Now, that relatio...

Closely linked since 1913, the Boy Scouts of America royally pissed off the LDS Church this week. The reason? Allowing gay troop leaders.

Feds Caved to Let Unsafe Spaceship Fly

By Clive Irving

The Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of Richard Branson’s “space tourism” program was so lax that it granted Virgin Galactic waivers from safety regulations that Galactic never asked for.That was one of the explosive findings announced ...

The NTSB says ‘political pressure’ on the FAA prevented it from stopping a dangerous program bankrolled by a delusional billionaire. Sources inside Virgin Galactic describe the break...

A 12-Hour Warning Before Sun-Pocalypse

By Nico Hines

LONDON — Last time it happened, in 1859, the world’s telegraph machines sparked into life on their own—setting fires and electrocuting their operators. Next time the results could be truly devastating.The next super solar storm could paralyze the ...

The British government is preparing for the next solar storm, which could drastically disrupt life on Earth. How scared should we be?

The Daily Beast Podcast: Hipsters for...

By Owen Agnew

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders gathered at more than 3,000 house parties on Wednesday to listen to a simulcast from the Vermont socialist senator. Daily Beast reporter Lizzie Crocker attended one of the parties at a...

On The Daily Beast podcast, Lizzie Crocker reports back on a Bernie Sanders party in Brooklyn.

Now You Can Drink Like The Pogues

By Tim Teeman

Well, it was only a matter of blurry, inebriated time before there was a branded Pogues whiskey.The Celtic punk band’s hard-drinking, drug-abusing frontman Shane MacGowan is legendary for his many substances of abuse. On their albums and in their ...

Spider Stacy, co-founder of The Pogues, talks about the band's whiskey brand, why he himself gave up alcohol, Shane MacGowan’s excesses, and the uncertain future of the band.

Can D.C. Ever Be Truly Sexy?

By Emily Shire

When The Hill released its 12th annual 50 Most Beautiful list on Wednesday, it was all but certain to become fodder for the snarkiest jabs.Christopher Ingraham at The Washington Post called The Hill’s Most Beautiful “the most meaningless popularit...

Behind the annual list that aims to disprove the maxim that politics is show business for ugly people lies a city happy to see its image sexed up in popular culture.

Bernie-acs Swarm Bushwick

By Lizzie Crocker

Early Wednesday evening at a sweaty loft party in Bushwick, hipster clichés sipped all-natural, hibiscus- and mint-flavored soda and admired their host’s artwork: small swaths of canvas stenciled with slogans for Bernie Sanders’s grassroots 2016 p...

In Brooklyn at a special ‘online party,’ there are ‘Bernie Is Bae’ placards, and—in a sea of Converse sneakers, crop tops, and tattoos—passionate support for Sanders.

Now You Can Drink Like The Pogues

By Tim Teeman

Well, it was only a matter of blurry, inebriated time before there was a branded Pogues whiskey.The Celtic punk band’s hard-drinking, drug-abusing frontman Shane MacGowan is legendary for his many substances of abuse. On their albums and in their ...

Spider Stacy, co-founder of The Pogues, talks about the band's whiskey brand, why he himself gave up alcohol, Shane MacGowan’s excesses, and the uncertain future of the band.

Why Rolling Stone’s Boss Had to Quit

By Lloyd Grove

Before word of his departure leaked on Wednesday night in The New York Times, it had been widely assumed at Rolling Stone that managing editor Will Dana had survived “A Rape on Campus”—the catastrophically error-ridden article that exposed the mag...

The resignation of managing editor Will Dana is, say insiders, more down to money than the furor that followed its flawed reporting of an alleged UVa rape.

The Daily Best: Games Gift Guide

By The Daily Best

The Daily Best is our pick of the best stuff on the web. If you see something you like (and hopefully you do!), we may get a share of the revenue from our commerce partners.Hanging out with friends is fun. Hanging out with friends AND kicking thei...

It’s Game On with our favorite picks of party games from around the web. From Twister to poker with a twist, we’ve got your Saturday night covered.

The Curse of the Celebrity Nanny

By Emily Shire

When Us Weekly broke the news that Ben Affleck was allegedly dating the nanny hired to care for his children with estranged wife Jennifer Garner, the nation uttered a collective sigh and eye roll.The same four words passed through all of our minds...

Ben Affleck has vehemently denied rumors that he is dating his kids’ nanny. But it’s an all-too-familiar scandalous tale—in real life and on screen.

Why Rolling Stone’s Boss Had to Quit

By Lloyd Grove

Before word of his departure leaked on Wednesday night in The New York Times, it had been widely assumed at Rolling Stone that managing editor Will Dana had survived “A Rape on Campus”—the catastrophically error-ridden article that exposed the mag...

The resignation of managing editor Will Dana is, say insiders, more down to money than the furor that followed its flawed reporting of an alleged UVa rape.

The 90-Day Rush to Nuke Japan

By Clive Irving

Every nuclear arms negotiation is about a weapon that nobody in their right mind would ever use. So negotiations like those with Iran come with a Kafkaesque twist: The most forceful moral authority for stopping the creation of another nuclear powe...

It took less than 90 days for the U.S. to turn a theoretical weapon into fearsome reality. President Truman was eager to end World War II and stop Stalin in his tracks.

NYC’s First Black Cop and a Boy’s Racism

By Arthur Browne

What I am about to confess I remember on a day in summer at the start of the ’60s, when I was a boy of nine or ten or eleven. I know exactly where I was, and although I cannot pinpoint the date, I can say for sure that I was very wrong.I was in th...

Writing the biography of Samuel Battle, New York City’s first black policeman, Arthur Browne learned a lot about himself and a society’s not-so-subtle racism that formed him.

How to Write a Novel in the Dark

By Siobhan Adcock

It’s 9 o’clock on a Wednesday and our daughter is in bed. The old rabbit-lady has whispered “hush” for the last time (the nameless, knitting, mysteriously-disappearing bunny-lady who is of course the creepiest part of Goodnight Moon). Her magical ...

Writing fiction while sharing a tiny New York apartment with a husband and child, Siobhan Adcock discovered that the enforced intimacy was good for all, even the novel.

Hooked on Brazil’s Ugly Beauty

By Juliana Barbassa

The plane banked and dipped for descent. I pressed my forehead against the tiny window, taking in the vast bay below, its surface broken by scattered islands. When Portuguese explorers first found shelter here in the early 1500s, they thought they...

In an excerpt from ‘Dancing With the Devil in the City of God,’ Juliana Barbassa describes the horror and enchantment of Rio de Janiero.

How to Hack Your Bad Habits

By Kara Cutruzzula

Finally, an answer to that age-old kindergarten/cocktail question: Which animal most closely resembles you, and why?I am Buridan’s ass. Because I can never make up my damn mind.The answer comes courtesy of Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before: Mast...

Happiness guru Gretchen Rubin is back—and she’s obsessed with your habits. But is endless habit analysis more burden than beneficial?

How to Write a Novel in the Dark

By Siobhan Adcock

It’s 9 o’clock on a Wednesday and our daughter is in bed. The old rabbit-lady has whispered “hush” for the last time (the nameless, knitting, mysteriously-disappearing bunny-lady who is of course the creepiest part of Goodnight Moon). Her magical ...

Writing fiction while sharing a tiny New York apartment with a husband and child, Siobhan Adcock discovered that the enforced intimacy was good for all, even the novel.

The Gonzo Doctor’s Gonzo Girl Friday

By Nina Strochlic

In 1992, Cheryl Della Pietra was a 22-year-old recent grad from Penn State looking to break into the publishing industry when she got a tip from a friend interning at Rolling Stone. Hunter S. Thompson was looking for an assistant. “I said, ‘Why do...

Taking on the job of wrangling the author of ‘Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas’ taught Cheryl Della Pietra a lot, starting with the fact that most of the cliches were true.

Gay Celibacy Is the New Ex-Gay Therapy

By Brandon Ambrosino

“I’m gayyyyyy,” Matt Jones answers when I ask him how he identifies sexually. “Add or remove one of the y’s as you see fit.”See, Jones is gay. But the letters act as a buffer of sorts: He’s a Christian and believes that sex is reserved for marriag...

‘Hate the sin, not the sinner’ has led evangelicals to push gay celibacy as a way to accept homosexuals. But is it any better than conversion therapy?

The Death of Satire

By Ted Gioia

How did satire get so stupid?Not long ago, satire reigned as the highest form of comedy. It could shake political regimes, and spur social change. But in the Internet age, satire mostly subsists as fake news stories served up as clickbait on socia...

Once the smartest form of comedy, satire has turned into fake news and dumbed-down clickbait. From Colbert to The Onion, the tide is going out.

The Gonzo Doctor’s Gonzo Girl Friday

By Nina Strochlic

In 1992, Cheryl Della Pietra was a 22-year-old recent grad from Penn State looking to break into the publishing industry when she got a tip from a friend interning at Rolling Stone. Hunter S. Thompson was looking for an assistant. “I said, ‘Why do...

Taking on the job of wrangling the author of ‘Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas’ taught Cheryl Della Pietra a lot, starting with the fact that most of the cliches were true.